Tuesday, April 23, 2013

I found this old post from a few years ago when visiting the cuckoo's nest and wanted to share. Not sure why I didn't publish it before....

Recently, I've been in the cuckoo's nest (outpatient psychiatric hospitalization) and yesterday one of the therapists said something that really stuck with me. He said that when people knock on our house door we have the choice to let them in or not. If it's the pizza guy, we let him in and get our pizza. If it's a nice friend, we let them in. If it's someone with a gun or who looks dangerous, we don't let them in.

In the same way, think about this...would you leave your windows and doors open in the middle of the night with all of your lights on in the hot, humid summertime? Probably not because if you did bugs would be flying in, it would be hot and uncomfortable. For this reason we shut our doors, we shut our windows, we filter our houses from these things.

We also filter e-mail and phone calls. Sometimes you may not pick up the phone or read every e-mail you receive.

So, with all of that being said and thinking about how we filter and protect our house door from strangers, why can't we do the same thing with the emotions that come into our mind?

Our brain will process thoughts that lead to emotion. That is what it's supposed to do. Sometimes the emotion is a good one and it's like a nice friend visiting and when it happens open the door wide and let it in. If it's a negative thought that produces a negative emotion, then we should shut that door and not let it in our brains to ruminate and visit for too long.

Yes, emotions (good and bad) will visit and it's our choice to welcome them or not.

I hope I'm articulating what I learned. I'm new at this healing process myself and just wanted to share this with you.